A Bureaucratic Demand for Indigenous Soldiers
The U.S. government attempts to recruit Yakima men into the army, ignoring the history of the conflict between the state and the reservation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Col. Lee, of the 10th infantry, stationed in Arizona, spent several days on the reservation last week in an endeavor to persuade some of the Indians to enlist in the United States army. Two companies in each regiment are to be skeletonised and filled up with Indians, fourteen hundred of whom will be required. Six hundred Indians, including the Apaches and Crows, have already been enlisted, but the idea is new to the Yakima Indians, and they said they wanted time to consider the question. One sage old Indian remarked that the ways of the government were peculiar. 'Fifteen and twenty years ago the soldiers were after us with bullet and bayonet to force us to lay down our arms and take up the plow. Now they are after us again, and this time they want us to lay down the plow and take up arms.'
“Fifteen and twenty years ago the soldiers were after us with bullet and bayonet to force us to lay down our arms and take up the plow. Now they are after us again, and this time they want us to lay down the plow and take up arms.”
This interaction captures a profound irony in American policy, where the same government that forcibly transitioned Indigenous communities to agrarian lifestyles suddenly viewed them as a necessary military resource.
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